I actually brewed 11 gallons of this, but the recipe below is proportioned for the more common 5.5 gallon batch (accounting for some loss in the kettle and the fermenter, with 5 full gallons in the keg):

Starting gravity is 1.056. Bittering is 30 IBUs.Mash at 154 deg F for one hour.

I split this batch into two fermenters. I pitched Safale S04 dry yeast into one half. Into the other half I pitched some WYeast 1968 London ESB slurry I had saved from a previous batch. The S04 half took off right away. I don't know what happened, but after three days the London ESB half showed no activity, so I pitched a packet of Munton and Fison dry yeast. Then it took off within a few hours. I thought this part of the batch was going to suffer from the lengthy lag time before fermentation started, but it turned out that this was the award-winning beer. I really think that the WYeast 1968 did contribute to the final flavor and I think it's the right yeast for this recipe.

The final beer was lucious--rich caramel, slightly roasted, and with a subtle smokey flavor which really surprised me since there is no smoked malt in the recipe.

6 comments:

The recipe itself looks fine, but you have the OG listed as 1.046 and it should be 1.056. Otherwise, I think you're good to go. Try to use a British malt extract, if you can. And if you make this, please let us know how it turns out!

It was good, just not as good as the one with the London ESB yeast. I like dry yeasts a lot myself and always have some on hand, but I have to admit that my best beers have come from liquid cultures, so I continue to use those products as well.